I believe having a top level domain which matches keywords of searches ideal. Am i correct in thinking this...

I did a google trend search for "general discussion forums" and there is volume there, so people are searching this. Now if i was to buy www.generaldiscussionforums.com as a domain and put a forum on it. Would my site appear as the first link in Google when people type in "general discussion forums" or is there more to it than that?

The way i see it is- it's a top level domain (which google loves)- the domain matches exact keywords which people enter- there is volume in them keywords

Have i got this right? would this work? does this work?

TechnoBear
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2013-05-02T14:29:00Z —
#2

We've had a couple of threads recently discussing this, which you might find helpful. For example:

Thanks for that, thats pretty much what i was getting at. I was just looking at volume for "help with seo" which there was quite a bit of so i typed "help with seo" into google but the domain helpwithseo.com didn't show up at all on the first page. I guess targeting keywords in your domain just doesn't work then. What a shame.

EnderMB
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2013-05-02T14:36:27Z —
#4

The reality of the situation is that Google want a system where it is near impossible to game results. The only realistic way of doing this is to base your rank off of high-quality back links.

Google isn't capable of reading content and knowing that it is quality. It is also unrealistic to suggest that a domain that matches the content is going to be the best resource.

The Google algorithm is going to be incredibly difficult to decipher, even more so as a black-box system. Ultimately, most of SEO is guess-work.

Siick26
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2013-05-02T19:11:11Z —
#5

So basically then, the domain name importance isn't really that important? i was always taught to have keywords in a domain name so you get higher up in the rankings. What a shame

Stevie_D
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2013-05-02T20:24:46Z —
#6

Siick26 said:

So basically then, the domain name importance isn't really that important? i was always taught to have keywords in a domain name so you get higher up in the rankings. What a shame

It went through a period of being quite important, but then Google found that lots of people were buying keyword-rich domain names but those sites were often low quality and not necessarily relevant to the name, so in one of the recent updates they have significantly reduced the importance they give to "exact match domains".

Ng_Xen
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2013-05-03T03:24:27Z —
#7

You can get to first page of Google using such keys. I see you've studied the keys very well. But you don't expect to see results overnight. You have to be able to compete sites in such niche. Most sites have been there for quite awhile, so you have to do a lot of seo and other internet marketing strat to get to the top. Work and focus on your keys.

EnderMB
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2013-05-03T07:19:14Z —
#8

Ng_Xen said:

You can get to first page of Google using such keys.

WRONG!

Any evidence of this, because there are two thought-out replies above that say otherwise.

Siick26
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2013-05-03T08:09:09Z —
#9

Well one thing which makes me think that domain names are absolutely useless (as stated slightly in the above post i wrote), is that someone owns the domain helpwithseo.com. So i looked on google trends and typed "help with seo" in to see if there was volume, and there was. I then typed "help with seo" in google and guess what... helpwithseo.com was nowhere to be seen not even in the top 2 pages.

I think for big keywords like "money" which are in domains like money.com or money.co.uk do work. But other generic terms don't seem to work. That being said, if i owned money.co.uk i'd sell it for a few million bucks and sit in the sun

SMDStudios
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2013-05-21T03:42:08Z —
#10

As mentioned before exact match domains do not carry the weight they used to. You next best bet is to get your website up and running and get some valuable content on the site that people will want to read / participate in.

Ng_Xen
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2013-05-27T08:03:58Z —
#11

ULTiMATE said:

Google isn't capable of reading content and knowing that it is quality.

I TOTALLY DISAGREE. Sure it can't read the content but it can know if you've got quality contents. Everyone points out content is king for a reason! Google looks for quality contents. It can know based on how long visitors visit a certain page. You can definitely check that out even in GA. Usually, people find pages interesting if they stay for quite a time and read what you got. If your content sucks, people don't stay and read your content/s.

kuszeras
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2013-06-03T03:15:39Z —
#12

That is true. But 1 thing is quality content - here it matters how long users stay, whether he is searching further on the same site and so on - and other thing is relevance. There keywords matter. You need to be good in both areas now to rank for certain keywords.

alastairbrian
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2013-06-03T06:21:44Z —
#13

No it will not, you will have to give it some quality links but less as compare to website with totally different name. Having keyword in URL, title and description and with few quality backlinks you can rank early.

EnderMB
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2013-06-03T16:24:52Z —
#14

Ng_Xen said:

I TOTALLY DISAGREE.

Okay then. Name a single algorithm that could look at any piece of information and quantify its credibility and quality.

You can't, because it does not exist. You don't need a PhD or time at the Googleplex to know that.

Ng_Xen said:

Sure it can't read the content but it can know if you've got quality contents.

How?

Ng_Xen said:

Everyone points out content is king for a reason!

No, they don't. Anyone that has worked in SEO before targets backlinks because they are proven to work. The reason people say content is king is because they don't want to push people towards spamming.

To prove my point; how would you promote an image only website? The only content is images, so how can Google judge this content?

Ng_Xen said:

Google looks for quality contents. It can know based on how long visitors visit a certain page.

How do they do this? They can do it through Google Analytics, but not everyone uses that. Can you prove that Google uses their analytics script in their rankings?

Also, how does staying on a page for a long time make it a good page? I know many great pages that require very little time, and some crappy pages that will use up minutes of my time.

Ng_Xen said:

Usually, people find pages interesting if they stay for quite a time and read what you got. If your content sucks, people don't stay and read your content/s.

That's a very narrow-minded view of quality, and I seriously doubt that the engineers at Google would view the Internet in such a way.

Ng_Xen
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2013-06-04T07:03:28Z —
#15

ULTiMATE said:

Okay then. Name a single algorithm that could look at any piece of information and quantify its credibility and quality.

You can't, because it does not exist. You don't need a PhD or time at the Googleplex to know that.

How?

No, they don't. Anyone that has worked in SEO before targets backlinks because they are proven to work. The reason people say content is king is because they don't want to push people towards spamming.

To prove my point; how would you promote an image only website? The only content is images, so how can Google judge this content?

How do they do this? They can do it through Google Analytics, but not everyone uses that. Can you prove that Google uses their analytics script in their rankings?

Also, how does staying on a page for a long time make it a good page? I know many great pages that require very little time, and some crappy pages that will use up minutes of my time.

That's a very narrow-minded view of quality, and I seriously doubt that the engineers at Google would view the Internet in such a way.

I disagree with everything you said. Sure you'd know if you've got good contents - PEOPLE STAY TO READ YOUR POSTING. How would you know? Check the number of minutes people stay in your page. That is at least how I know Google does it, base on what I learn from the so-called experts. Sometimes people stay in seconds because maybe you don't have what they are looking for, your key must not be correlated with what you've written, or just poor writing.

Not everyone uses GA doesn't mean it can't determine the number or minutes/hours/seccs a visitor stays on your site because it can.

Narrow minded? Really? I think those who doesn't have a clue on how to distinguish good from bad contents are narrow minded.

Backlinks for SEO?! Where were you with the recent panda update? People were even taking out backlinks done through blackhat as Google was penalizing their sites. With the update, experts advised on producing quality contents on websites rather than producing a bunch of links.

Nobody knows exactly how Google's algorithm works, perhaps except those working in the company. People make adjustments depending on which one works. And they found that Google is interested in valuable information - keywords relating to the contents and the site itself.

Stevie_D
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2013-06-04T08:55:33Z —
#16

Ng_Xen said:

Not everyone uses GA doesn't mean it can't determine the number or minutes/hours/seccs a visitor stays on your site because it can.

I'm intrigued as to how you think Google can figure that out.

EnderMB
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2013-06-10T13:50:16Z —
#17

Ng_Xen said:

I disagree with everything you said. Sure you'd know if you've got good contents - PEOPLE STAY TO READ YOUR POSTING. How would you know? Check the number of minutes people stay in your page. That is at least how I know Google does it, base on what I learn from the so-called experts. Sometimes people stay in seconds because maybe you don't have what they are looking for, your key must not be correlated with what you've written, or just poor writing.

You've yet to explain how Google can automate this process. You've also yet to state how minutes on page equates to quality.

Ng_Xen said:

Not everyone uses GA doesn't mean it can't determine the number or minutes/hours/seccs a visitor stays on your site because it can.

It can, but Google would open themselves up to some horrendous anti-trust cases if it were proven that they used their analytics tool to boost site rankings.

Ng_Xen said:

Narrow minded? Really? I think those who doesn't have a clue on how to distinguish good from bad contents are narrow minded.

We're not talking about people though, are we? We're talking about a search algorithm.

Ng_Xen said:

Backlinks for SEO?! Where were you with the recent panda update?

Sitting back, and relaxing, because my sites were fine and people that relied on crappy backlinks were watching their rankings fall.

Ng_Xen said:

People were even taking out backlinks done through blackhat as Google was penalizing their sites. With the update, experts advised on producing quality contents on websites rather than producing a bunch of links.

The mantra "content is king" has been touted for the best part of a decade. It's nothing new. I hate to repeat myself, but you still need to explain how Google's search algorithm can say whether a website is of sufficient quality just by looking at its content.

Ng_Xen said:

Nobody knows exactly how Google's algorithm works, perhaps except those working in the company. People make adjustments depending on which one works. And they found that Google is interested in valuable information - keywords relating to the contents and the site itself.

If you really think that keywords are relevant then I would reconsider your knowledge base on SEO.

Once again, explain how an algorithm can judge content and dictate its quality.